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Academics | College Essay | September 2012

Writing a College Essay: Tips for Success

By Laura Snyder | For StudentAdvisor.com

First-year
students often struggle with the transition from high
school writing to college essay writing. Many are surprised to find
their
professors
have very different expectations about what makes a “good” college
essay.

“Transitioning
to college
essay writing requires students to take on greater depth and greater
breadth
of
knowledge,” saysDominic
DelliCarpini, dean of academic
affairs and professor of English atYork
College of
Pennsylvania.

One
of the first surprises
might be just how much you’re expected to write.

“Many
students are used to
writing only for classes in the humanities: English and maybe history,”
saysWilliam
Kelly, director of theCenter
for Writing ExcellenceatEckerd College in St.
Petersburg,
Fla.“They
may be
unaccustomed to having multiple writing assignments from multiple
classes. They’re
not expecting to have more than one paper going on at the same time.”

Different
assignments will
require different kinds of papers. That old five-paragraph
essay that worked so well in high school is less
useful in your college courses.

“Often,
new students think that
one form of writing will fit any topic,” saysCollette
van Kerckvoorde, who directs theWriting
& Thinking Workshop
atBard College at Simon’s Rockin
Massachusetts, a
five-day
orientation helping students navigate the transition to college-level
writing.
“We try to teach them that there are many ways to communicate with
their
reader. We encourage them to be creative and to think of different ways
to
raise ideas.”

“The
five-paragraph essay can
provide you with a useful way of structuring your thoughts with an
introduction, evidence, and a conclusion,” says DelliCarpini, “But not
all
writing occasions lend themselves to that specific structure.”

Be
expected to make more arguments,
professors say. Most
high school essay writing is designed to show you’ve understood what
you’ve
read, for example; college writing requires you to make a critical
judgment of
that reading.

“Even
some of the best students
are most comfortable parroting what they’ve been told or read, and are
less
comfortable about having an opinion,” says Kelly. “It’s very different
to
students to realize the importance of imparting their voice, the need
to make a
stand.”

When
making an argument, you’ll
need evidence to support your point. And Google
and Wikipedia won’t cut it.

“The
expectation of what
constitutes an appropriate source might be different in college,” says
Kelly.
In high school, you may have done research for research’s sake. In
college,
you’ll be expected to use more “scholarly” sources that will support
your
argument – not just prove you could find five sources.

Finally,
understand that good
writing is the result of a process.

“The
early stages of writing
can be messy,” says DelliCarpini. “Be willing to toss out thoughts that
don’t
fit your purpose or audience in favor of better thoughts and more
polished
products. Writing is an inefficient
process, but a rich one, if you are willing to come back to
it with a new
eye.”

Success
at college means doing
more than you are asked to do, reminds DelliCarpini. “College requires
more
independent work than high school, and that applies to writing as
well,” he
says. “Write every day, and use it as the tool of inquiry that it
really is. Good
thinkers,exactthinkers,
write all the time. For you
and for others, as a student and a citizen, writing
is about as central to learning as any activity.”